What’s one of the crucial spectacular stuff you’ve ever seen her do?
There’s one which instantly involves thoughts. One of her heroes on this world is Pharrell Williams. He was variety sufficient to provide us a featured verse on the track “Woman.” Everybody felt just like the clouds parted and the solar was shining. This was within the early days of Doja Cat’s profession when it was frustratingly troublesome to get options again from folks. It takes some time for folks to catch on to the purpose the place they’re taking part within the “feature economy.” The Pharrell factor felt like such an enormous win. She walked into the studio someday, we listened to the track, and he or she was simply in a temper and feeling herself that day. She stated, “Can we mute his verse? I want to see if I can do something in that space.” We all stated, “Sure, let’s mute Pharrell Williams” (laughs). She went into the sales space and had that part on loop for not that lengthy. Then she laid down her second verse on “Woman,” which is arguably the lyrical soul of that album. It’s one in every of my favourite moments of hers lyrically on any album. I used to be so pleased with her and thought she was most likely the ballsiest particular person I knew within the music business at that second.
Let’s get to Scarlet. How lengthy did it take you all to make that album?
I believe “Attention” would possibly’ve been the very first thing that acquired recorded that made the album. She might have recorded that almost precisely a 12 months in the past. We have been figuring out of her home studio for some time on the finish of final 12 months. It appeared proper to begin branching out and dealing in another studios. So, we went to a studio in Malibu known as Harbor Studios. It’s actually stunning. It’s proper on the water. As quickly as we acquired to Harbor, she had a inventive output like I’ve by no means seen earlier than. It simply began erupting. She was typically fully writing and ending three songs a day. There are songs from that interval the place they went on to the combo engineer after our first day. We labored on them that first day, and we bounced a ref that everyone was proud of. Then, that session went on to the combo engineer on the finish of the method. I’ve by no means seen anyone work so shortly or confidently. She knew precisely what she wished to say on the album. She knew what sort of beats she wished. She mainly executive-produced it herself.
How meticulous is she about her music?
She knew instantly anytime I moved the track off of the two-track and onto the producer’s stems, for instance. She would have particular notes about how we have to do that and that to match the two-track. Her ear is unimaginable. Quite a lot of MP3s have this little clean area on the very entrance of them. Usually, because the MP3 is coming in and the artist goes out to the sales space to chop to it, I simply mechanically trim it out. But we will need to have been working so shortly that I spaced on doing that. I truly measured it within the session, and it was half of a millisecond. That little clean area originally of the MP3 had put all of her vocals half a millisecond behind the place they have been within the reference that she actually favored. She known as it out instantly. She was like, “My vocals are late on this mix.” She has a few of the craziest ears of anyone that I’ve labored with.
Of all her huge hits, which of them have been recorded comparatively quick?
“Kiss Me More” was fairly fast. For “Kiss Me More,” she had all of her s**t down inside two classes. Her first verse and that hook simply erupted out of her in a two or three-hour spurt.
What is the standard studio setting that Doja Cat likes to make her greatest music?
It’s exhausting for me to establish a standard thread as a result of Sound Factory is darkish and mysterious, and so they at all times do pink, blue, and purple lights for her at any time when she is available in. She appears to actually love that. But then, once we have been at Harbor Studios in Malibu, we have been at all times working through the daytime, and there was simply tons of sunshine coming in. There have been these massive, open, form of breezy feeling areas, and he or she appeared to thrive in that setting as nicely. I believe the right room for Amala is the room that has the precise people who she desires in it. She by no means rolls with some massive crew of individuals. She does 100% of her personal writing. We don’t ever work with writers along with her.
